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Football
- Title:
- Offensive Coordinator & Quarterbacks
- Email:
- rackovan@princeton.edu
Dave Rackovan, a veteran of 22 seasons of Ivy League football coaching, enters his 10th season as offensive coordinator at Princeton. The longtime coach of the Princeton running backs, Rackovan will work specifically with the quarterbacks in 2009. This will allow head coach Roger Hughes to have a broader oversight of the entire program, while former defensive assistant E.J. Henderson will move to running backs coach.
Rackovan helped develop the 2006 Princeton offense into one of the most explosive in the Ivy League. The Tigers ranked first in total offense and passing offense, third in scoring offense and fourth in rushing offense that season, despite starting five new offensive linemen.
As the running backs coach, Rackovan has helped develop a handful of top performers in recent years, including last season. In 2008, junior running back Jordan Culbreath was one of only two unanimous first-team All-Ivy honorees; Culbreath rushed for 1,206 yards in 2008, the fourth-highest single-season total in Princeton history. In the final game of the season, a 28-10 victory over Dartmouth, Culbreath rushed for 276 yards, the second-most in Princeton history and the fifth-most in Ivy League history.
In 2002, Cameron Atkinson raced from Rackovan’s backfield to unanimous first-team All-Ivy honors. He ended his career ranked third all-time at Princeton in rushing yardage, trailing only legendary rushers Keith Elias and Judd Garrett. Since then, Jon Veach and Ron Toresco have also earned All-Ivy honors during their respective senior seasons. Culbreath will enter the 2009 season needing only 991 yards to move past Atkinson and into third-place on the all-time Princeton rushing list.
Rackovan spent six seasons at Penn and eight at Dartmouth before moving to Princeton with Roger Hughes, Dartmouth’s former offensive coordinator. Rackovan worked with the running backs and was the special teams coordinator at Dartmouth.
Before joining the Penn staff in 1986, Rackovan was wide receivers/tight ends coach for two seasons at Indiana (Pa.). From 1976-83 he was head coach at Purchase Line High in Commodore, Pa. A 1973 Millersville graduate, Rackovan started at various times at wide receiver and quarterback.
Rackovan and his wife Marjean, an elementary school teacher in the Philadelphia school district, have a son David and a daughter Anita. David is a member of the U.S. Army 10th Special Forces Group, the Green Berets. He has served two tours in Iraq. Anita graduated from Princeton in 2006 and won an NCAA championship with the women’s lacrosse team in 2003. She is an English teacher and the head girl’s lacrosse coach at Norfolk Academy.
RECRUITING AREAS
Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania
